["I must warn you first, since this is the divine power of the Old Great One Animo, it can have unexpected side effects on your mind and body even after you have accepted it. You may notice that your personality might become more… darker I suppose. Overall, it is a positive change because it will help you make more rational decisions in the future and for you to ultimately survive out there in the world!"]
Noctis heard Spirit Magi's words and felt like it wasn't much of a problem since he had already experienced the cruel nature of people and had understood the principle of survival of the fittest. He thought that it would indeed help him, but he still couldn't help but ask,
"You didn't think it was important to tell me this earlier? Hmm… I'll put my faith in your words for now, so it's fine either way... How do we begin? I should be prepared now… to accept Old Great One Animo's inheritance!"
Noctis brought one of his hands forward and had slowly clenched it into a fist, as he gave a determined look to Spirit Magi. The spirit silently nodded and then gave out instructions,
["Make contact with the pale flame using your hands and slowly bring it to the center of your chest. At that point, you will have to calm your heart and fully concentrate, as you have to guide the energy source within the flame throughout your body. Think of your body as a hollow and broken shell and that in order to be whole again, you would need to use the pale flame to rekindle several points within your body. Naturally, you know that the center of your chest contains a source that links all the energies inside your body, so this shouldn't be a hard task for you…]
Spirit Magi spoke in a clear tone despite it having a deep and hoarse voice. The spirit then looked at the brilliant pale flame, as it was still quietly dazzling within the deep cave.
Some moments had passed, and Noctis noticed that Spirit Magi was still looking at the pale flame. He didn't know what it was thinking, but just as he opened his mouth to call out the spirit's name, Spirit Magi had actually turned to look back at Noctis and then spoke again,
["… The actual hard part is you having to endure the pain and pressure as the divine power of Old Great Animo fully integrates with your body. Your body will be engulfed in the pale flames, but you won't actually receive any sort of physical pain. In fact, it will all be in your mind and this is due to the innate nature of the Old Great One Animo. I will explain later, but as I've said before, I can make sure that you have a good chance at succeeding the inheritance because I can help you minimize the pain that you will receive in your mind. Old Great One Animo was my master, so there's no one else in the present world that knows how its divine power works better than I do!]
"It will… come from my mind?" Noctis sucked in a cold breath and felt that he had become unsettled due to not realizing that Old Great One Animo's divine power would run so deep within the mind…
["The last step, which is the most important step! It's directly related to your Grand Celestial Elemental physique and that it would need to be activated to unlock its greatest potential. After you have used the pale flame to link the energies throughout your body, you would need to gather it and converge the flames within your physique. That is to say, within the tangled source of energy that contains the different arrays of elemental colors. You will need to guide the divine power of Old Great One Animo to untangle it, which will then bridge a connection to your mind. The inheritance will finally be complete at that point… as the Old Great One Animo had once said, it all ends with the mind and it will begin to rise forth from the mind once more…"]
Noctis focused on the words Spirit Magi had said and was able to clearly remember everything. A short moment had passed before Noctis heard Spirit Ster's voice that actually had a relaxed tone,
"It's going to be fine kid! Hahahaha… Your journey hasn't even begun yet, so there's no way in hell that you're gonna fall here without having taken a single step out of this damn cave! Don't forget that you would need to figure out why the hell my name isn't known to the world… Anyways, I would say good luck, but you clearly don't need it!" |
The spiritual sense between the both of them got cut off once more, and Noctis gave out a wry smile. He then lifted both of his hands and attempted to make contact with the pale flame,
"Alright… Let's begin!"
Noctis carefully made contact with the pale flame, but something had strangely occurred first which he couldn't help but notice. The peerless aura that had covered the pale flame actually started to condense and slowly travel up towards his arms, as if it was being mysteriously drawn in by something…
Noctis dispelled this thought and relaxed his mind. He sat down and brought the pale flame closer to his body, and then entered into a deep state of concentration. He brought Old Great One Animo's divine power towards the source deep within the center of his chest that linked the energies of his entire body.
Noctis felt the pale flame slowly engulfing him, but as Spirit Magi said, he didn't feel any physical pain at all. Rather, he felt the flames were soothing and it had made him somewhat comfortable.
This changed as he was starting to spread the divine power to link the energy points throughout his body, as intense pressure seemingly emerged out of nowhere from within his mind.
Spirit Magi had noticed Noctis's sharp change in expression, so it quickly got to work. The spirit's black scales had once more started to vibrate and scatter, but it wasn't nearly as intense as before. Shortly after, a mysterious strand had appeared from the dragon-head shape black scale and it connected to the center of Noctis's forehead.
Noctis felt as if a thousand needles were being prickled from his mind and it had greatly disrupted the progress of linking the energy points within his body. He had become very slow, but after some time later, the pain had become largely reduced.
Noctis believed that this was due to Spirit Magi, so he didn't think much of it and had continued. He was soon able to make great progress, but the pain and pressure within his mind exponentially increased the longer he had taken and the more energy points that he had linked.
A lot of time had passed, and Noctis was finally able to link his entire body using the source within the pale flame!
He took a moment to catch his breath and to compose himself, before he then continued on to the last step. Noctis slowly gathered the pale flames and converged it deep within the center of his chest, which then made contact with his Grand Celestial Elemental physique.
As soon as Noctis did this action, he was caught completely off guard as he didn't expect the pain in his mind to increase several folds almost instantly!
"AUGHHH!"
Noctis couldn't hep but loudly shout, as he felt an unbearable and unimaginable amount of pain go through his mind. He knew that it would've been extremely worse if Spirit Magi hadn't significantly minimized the pain, but even then, this still made him almost feel like he wanted to die just so he could end the amount of pain that he was suffering…
Moments later, the orifices from his head started to slowly drip out blood in continuous amounts, which included his mouth, ears, nostrils, and even his eye sockets! If an outsider had taken a look at his current state, then that person would've become very frightened and thought that Noctis would definitely die without a doubt!
"Hang in there, kid! This much blood is nothing compared to the amount of blood I've spilled in the past!" |
Spirit Ster's voice had once again appeared within Noctis's mind, and soon it had increased Noctis's rate of recovery. The spirit was greatly exhausting its own energy in order to fully stop the bleeding, and eventually it worked after what seemed like a long time.
Noctis was struggling to barely maintain his own consciousness because he knew that if he were to fall right now, then not only would it all be for nothing, but he would most likely die!
He was very thankful for Spirit Magi and Spirit Ster's help, so he firmly decided to pull his own weight and to complete the final step.
Noctis entered into a deep state of concentration again after great difficulty, and controlled Old Great One Animo's divine power to untangle the source of energy deep within his body, which was his Grand Celestial Elemental physique.
He was being careful about it despite him still experiencing an extreme amount of pain, but his determination and iron will to complete the inheritance had exceeded above everything else.
He pushed forward with all his might and as soon as he untangled the last bit of energy strand of his physique, Noctis could hear a 'ting' sound and a huge surge of energy appeared from the source within the pale flame.
This caused a synchronous reaction with the rest of the energy that was within Noctis's body. They all had simultaneously surged up and had lifted Noctis's mind to a greater and higher state… as if he was floating high above the clouds and was overlooking the entire Dawnfire World!
The last step was finally complete and a bridge was formed that connected Old Great One Animo's divine power to his body and mind!
Noctis had become the first complete inheritor of an Old Great One!